England's most celebrated home loss
is the shattering 6-3 defeat by Hungary at Wembley Stadium in 1953. But
by then England already had suffered 22 home losses, 13 to Scotland, seven to
Wales, one to united Ireland and one to the Republic of Ireland. Hungary were
not even the first side to beat England at Wembley; Scotland already had done
that four times. Nor were they the first side from outside the United
Kingdom to beat England at home; the Republic of Ireland did that in 1949. They were, however, the first foreign side to beat England at Wembley, no mean
feat.

England have now lost 59
times in 411
home matches, roughly a 1 in 7 ratio. The list of opponents who have accomplished the feat
remains fairly exclusive, 18 teams if predecessor and
successor nations are lumped together (Ireland and Northern Ireland, West
Germany and Germany). Germany are the latest team to join the
list, on 19 November 2013 when they became the second team in the space of
five days to complete two home defeats.

England have played at home
against 58 teams, again counting predecessor and successor nations as one (Czechoslovakia
and the Czech Republic and Yugoslavia and Serbia and Montenegro as well as the Irish and German teams already
mentioned). However, two of those teams, the Rest of Europe and the
Rest of the World, were not national selections, but representative
sides consisting of players drawn from several nations, and so England
have played at home against 56 national sides. They thus remain
unbeaten at home by 35 of the 56 national sides they have played on
English soil, approximately two-thirds of the teams they have met at
home.

England have lost only seven
preliminary matches on home soil in major tournament play, five European
Championship matches and two World Cup matches. In European Championship
play, Scotland accomplished that feat twice--once in a qualification group
match and once in an intergroup playoff match--and West Germany, Denmark and
Croatia
did it once each. In World Cup qualification play, Italy and Germany
each beat England once on English soil.

England have hosted one World Cup
final tournament, in 1966, and one European Championship final tournament, in
1996, and they have yet to be beaten on home soil in major final tournament
play. They won World Cup 1966, going undefeated in six matches.
While they failed to advance from the semi-finals at European Championship
1996, they went out of the tournament only on penalty kicks after drawing 1-1
with Germany after extra time.